Technical Field
The present invention relates to a saddle riding type vehicle having brake levers on the left handle and the right handle.
Description of the Background Art
A saddle riding type vehicle as disclosed by JP-A 2008-290699 that has brake levers on the left handle and the right handle has been known. The saddle riding type vehicle has a front wheel brake lever on one of the left handle and the right handle and an interlocking brake lever provided at the other of the left handle and the right handle. The front wheel brake lever is connected to a master cylinder provided in the vicinity of the interlocking brake lever through a transmission cable. The hydraulic pressure in the master cylinder changes in response to operation of the front wheel brake lever. The hydraulic pressure change generated in the master cylinder is transmitted to the brake pad of a caliper through a hydraulic path. In this way, the brake pad is pressed against a brake disk and braking force is generated.
The interlocking brake lever is provided with an arm that changes the hydraulic pressure in the master cylinder of the front wheel brake and connected with a rear wheel brake cable through an equalizer. The equalizer distributes force caused by operating the interlocking brake lever between the front wheel brake and the rear wheel brake. The equalizer allows the front wheel brake and the rear wheel brake to be activated in response to operation of the interlocking brake lever.
In the disclosure of JP-A 2008-290699, a brake disk is used for the front wheel brake and a so-called drum brake is used for the rear wheel brake. A brake structure having disk brakes for both front and rear wheels is also known as a general brake structure for a saddle riding type vehicle. Therefore, if disk brakes are used for both front and rear wheels brakes, an interlocking brake may be employed similarly to the structure disclosed by JP-A 2008-290699.
In the structure disclosed by JP-A 2008-290699, if the drum brake as the rear wheel brake is simply exchanged with a disk brake, a master cylinder for the rear wheel brake must be provided somewhere between the interlocking brake lever and the rear wheel. In this case, the interlocking brake lever and the master cylinder for the rear wheel brake must be connected using a transmission cable.
Here, using the transmission cable, the efficiency of transmitting operation force is lower than the case of transmitting hydraulic pressure in the hydraulic path and braking force generated by the brakes is reduced. As described above, if the rear wheel brake is simply exchanged with a disk brake in the structure disclosed by JP-A 2008-290699, an increased number of transmission cables is necessary and the cables should be longer. Therefore, braking force generated by the brakes in response to operation force would be reduced, which makes the brake system less efficient.